Naperville Central gets past Plainfield East

Ho-hum, the veteran program knocked off the upstart school - with five sophomores starting - by 16 points.

But slow down a minute. Naperville Central's 67-51 defeat of nonconference visiting Plainfield East on Tuesday night was not without a little suspense and some scares for the home crowd.

Even after starting the game with an 11-0 run, and even after leading 44-33 after three quarters of play, the Redhawks found themselves ahead just 46-40 with the Bengals at the free-throw line for a bonus situation with 5:07 still left on the clock.

But Plainfield East (7-10) missed that free throw and the Redhawks (12-5) then outscored their opponents 21-11 to win going away. It was some stellar free-throw shooting on their part and some key baskets from David Niggins and Bobby Czarnowski that enabled Naperville Central to claim its fifth win in a row.

"They really pressured the ball well and gave us problems at times," said Czarnowski, who scored a season-high 23 points and added 7 rebounds and 3 steals on Tuesday. "But whether it was me or David, we seemed to find open looks."

That they did. Whenever the Bengals got too close to pulling off the upset, one of the two Redhawks sharp-shooters would put down a timely 3-pointer. Niggins, who led all scorers with 24 points, connected on 3 long-range baskets while Czarnowski had a pair.

Equally big was the Redhawks' free-throw shooting as the hosts made good on 20 of 23 attempts, including a perfect 8 of 8 in the fourth quarter from Mike Schremp.

"Our free throws definitely helped a lot at the end," said Niggins, who was 7 of 8 from the line in the game. "That and the fact that our point guards found people when we broke the press."

The Bengals, who had six players score between 6 and 9 points in the game led by Jawan Straughter's 9, pressured the Redhawks into 8 turnovers in the third quarter. But Naperville Central took better care of the ball in the fourth quarter and then sealed the victory by knocking down 11 of 14 foul shots in the final quarter.

"We've been trying play by committee and to look for each other and take good shots," Redhawks coach Pete Kramer said. "The kids have been buying into that."

The Redhawks also relied on some stingy defense and strong rebounding led by center Matt Neufeld's 11 boards and 3 blocks. "Our two goals are always defending and rebounding," Kramer said.

"If we do those two goals we'll be in every game."

Bengals coach Branden Adkins is witnessing some nice growth in the school's program, but he just hasn't gotten it on a regular basis for a full 32 minutes.

"When you've got five sophomores and juniors that don't have much varsity experience, you struggle to have consistency for four quarters," he said. "But I just told these kids, 'I'll never doubt your effort.' "